The home where Nobel Prize-winning author and German national treasure Thomas Mann lived in Los Angeles after fleeing from the Nazi regime has been snapped up by the German government to protect it from potential demolition.
When the property came up for sale over the summer, it seemed that it was being marketed to buyers who would be significantly changing or outright leveling the original structure. The idea of demolishing the house where Mann penned Doctor Faustus and other works—a place considered highly symbolic for the large community of artists and intellectuals who made their way to Los Angeles to escape WWII—didn’t seem right to some, and a campaign to have it protected began, according to the New York Times.
Nestled on an entire lush acre, the five-bedroom modernist residence was never a mere starving writer’s hovel. It was designed by architect J.R. Davidson and situated on a prime spot in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, then a hip neighborhood for modernists and creatives. Ray and Charles Eames were among the neighbors, as was Mann’s countryman Lion Feuchtwanger.
Since 1990, Feuchtwanger’s home has been run by a German foundation that uses it to provide cultural programming and residency programs for artists, writers and journalists who come from places or circumstances where their freedom of expression has been restricted. That same foundation will now be taking over the Mann estate as well. Germany will be paying to renovate the home and create studios and housing for artists.
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